If he had all this prepared material ready after a win over Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, just imagine the ridiculous love sonnet to his own greatness that he might have graced us with if he’d actually become a UFC champion.

Instead, Sonnen (28-13-1 MMA, 7-6 UFC) had to settle for a win that turned him into a viable light heavyweight – just in time for him to return to middleweight. Or, who knows, maybe not. With no shortage of suitors who hover right in the 185 to 205-pound sweet spot, it almost feels like it doesn’t matter which division Sonnen fights in next. The man has effectively become a “moneyweight,” as “King Mo” Lawal might say. And the fact that so many fighters can’t wait to meet him there tells us they recognize Sonnen’s unique star power for exactly what it is: a chance to get paid.

Is that so bad? The UFC doesn’t seem to think so. It was content to let Sonnen lead the charge for its big debut night on FOX Sports 1, and the early numbers suggest it was a great success. Maybe that approach leaves UFC president Dana White feeling a little overly defensive about Sonnen’s credibility as a top-tier main event fighter, but Sonnen has a true gift for staying relevant in a sport with a short memory.

As for “Shogun” Rua (21-8 MMA, 5-6 UFC), well, what now? He’s the one who gets to call himself a former UFC and PRIDE champion. Along with Dan Henderson, he was also one half of one of the greatest MMA fights of all time. But it’s Sonnen’s star that’s shining now, while Rua has now lost two in a row, leaving him with a losing record in the UFC.

That feels somehow vaguely unfair, and yet there it is. On paper, Rua looks like one of the least impressive 205-pound champs, unless you actually saw him fight enough to know what his deal is. Throughout his stay in the UFC, Rua’s been a whirling cyclone of violence on some nights, and a seemingly disinterested participant on others. Is this how it ends for him, at 31 years old? Or will he reload and come back once more?

We’ll have to wait and see. For now all we know is that, in the Chael Sonnen lottery, his numbers didn’t quite come up.

Other thoughts from UFC Fight Night 26…

How the mighty have fallen (and shrunken)

Oh, Alistair Overeem (36-13 MMA, 1-2 UFC). How did it come to this? Here we are, two fights removed from his positive drug test, and it’s as if he’s trying to make the case that the best things about his career came from a syringe. Just looking at him, you can see the difference. He’s leaner, more human-looking, less other-wordly. Then there’s his performance in his last two fights, both of which he was winning handily until the fatal combo of fatigue plus a total disregard for his opponent’s abilities laid him out on the canvas.

OK, that’s not totally fair. At least, not to Travis Browne (15-1-1 MMA, 6-1-1 UFC), who took some brutal body shots (not to mention an illegal knee) and somehow found the will and the ability to get back up and fire back. Browne deserves credit for that. Overeem might have collapsed, but 90 percent of heavyweights are turtled up and waiting for referee Mario Yamasaki to get his conflict resolution on well before they get the chance to find out whether “The Reem” spent all he had in search of the finish. We knew Browne was big guy with solid skills and, if anything, perhaps a little too much confidence in the diversity of his own striking attack. Now we know he has guts, too.

McGregor hype sets the bar just a little too high

For any other prelim fighter with only one prior UFC fight, a dominating decision victory over the likes of Max Holloway (7-3 MMA, 3-3 UFC) would be a smashing success. For Conor McGregor (14-2 MMA, 2-0 UFC), who got his own media workout and his own UFC poster in Boston, it almost felt like a disappointment. It shouldn’t have. He looked pretty damn good against Holloway. The Irishman was comfortable, relaxed, unpredictable, and unrelenting in his attack. Holloway never got going, and after the first three minutes the outcome was hardly in doubt. Trouble is, when you build a fighter up the way the UFC did with McGregor, you make it almost impossible for him to live up to expectations.

The good news is, McGregor seems like the kind of guy who takes it as a challenge rather than letdown.

“I don’t come here for decisions,” a disappointed McGregor said after the fight. “We are rewarded for finishes, and that’s what I’m looking for. I’m a finisher. Anything else to me, other than stealing the show? I planned on stealing the show, and it didn’t happen for me. It feels like I’m dealing with a loss at the minute.”

The UFC might be asking him to carry a heavy load right now, considering his experience, but at least it seems like they picked the right man for the job.

Are we finally ready to admit that “The Immortal” is pretty damn good?

I’ve said it before, but if there’s anyone who gives the UFC a reason to think twice before being so quick to cut struggling fighters, it’s Matt Brown (18-11 MMA, 11-5 UFC). He went through a rough stretch where he lost four out of five, including the dreaded three-fight skid that usually results in automatic unemployment, yet the UFC stuck with him. Now he’s riding a six-fight win streak and it’s getting harder and harder to act like he’s just another tough guy fit for little else than filling out an undercard. At the same time, when he talks about his desire to “beat GSP’s ass,” you can also hear the MMA world stifling its giggles.

It’s as if, no matter how many people he starches on his sprint through the welterweight division, we still see him as an over-achieving brawler. And, hey, what if he is? Isn’t that the antidote to Georges St-Pierre‘s style that people at least claim to want?

Perhaps, but Brown’s probably going to need another couple of wins to get everyone used to the idea. The good news is, even if other people in the sport aren’t quite ready to start thinking of him as a top welterweight, he seems to already regard himself that way.

High-five contest falls flat

A friend of mine has long suggested a rule change to MMA: if fighters make it a point to high five or touch gloves or hug at any time other than the beginning or ending of the fight, it’s an automatic point deduction for whoever initiates it. While his hatred of mid-fight bro love seems to border on the obsessive, it sure looked like the John Howard (21-8 MMA, 5-3 UFC) vs. Uriah Hall (7-4 MMA, 0-2 UFC) fight could have used a little less friendship and a little more action.

To hear White tell it, it’s proof that Hall is “not a fighter.” That seems a little harsh, but at the very least his last two fights have indicated a total lack of any sense of urgency. Physically, he seems to have all the tools. It just seems like his perception of how the fight looks is radically different from the reality. While everyone else is waiting for him to turn it on and go, he’s cruising. Does that mean he’s not a fighter? I wouldn’t say that. It just means he’s probably not a UFC fighter. Not for long, anyway.

As the UFC 189 tour made its last stop in Dublin, featherweight champ Jose Aldo was met with a torrent of abuse from the Irish fans. It might have been unpleasant, but it might also have been just what he needed.